(9, 10) And the Lord came, and stood.--Then before the boy, as he lay and waited for the voice, came something, and it stood before him. The question naturally occurs to us, What came and stood before the boy's couch? As a rule, we find that generally, when the Lord was pleased to take some form, the form is specified. Now, as in Abraham's case at Mamre, it was a traveller; now, as in Joshua's, an armed warrior; very frequently, as to Manoah, the form was that of an angel; here nothing is specially described. Was it not that simply "the glory" on which Moses gazed when he met the Holy One on Sinai--"the glory" which seemed to rest at times in the lightless Holy of Holies on the golden mercy-seat of the Ark of the Covenant? Was it not this "visible glory"--Shekinah. as the Hebrews termed it--which filled the chamber of the child, and from out of this came the voice of the Eternal, and spoke to Samuel? "See how God loves holiness in children. The child Samuel was preferred by Him to Eli, the aged high priest and judge."--Theodoret, quoted by Bishop Wordsworth.

3:1-10 The call which Divine grace designs shall be made effectual; will be repeated till it is so, till we come to the call. Eli, perceiving that it was the voice of God that Samuel heard, instructed him what to say. Though it was a disgrace to Eli, for God's call to be directed to Samuel, yet he told him how to meet it. Thus the elder should do their utmost to assist and improve the younger that are rising up. Let us never fail to teach those who are coming after us, even such as will soon be preferred before us, Joh 1:30. Good words should be put into children's mouths betimes, by which they may be prepared to learn Divine things, and be trained up to regard them.Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, go, lie down,.... Once more:

and it shall be, if he call thee; the voice, or the Lord by it:

that thou shalt say, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth; his meaning is, that he should not rise and come to him, as he had done, but continue on his bed, on hearing the voice again, but desire the Lord to speak to him what he had to say, to which he was ready to attend:

so Samuel went and lay down in his place; which, as commonly understood, was in the court of the Levites; see Gill on 1 Samuel 3:3.